It was thought that having long hair was a disgrace to men. Please turn to 1 Corinthians 9:1 and notice the Apostle Paul states in this verse that he has seen the Lord.
Two chapters later in 11:14-15 he states,
"Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him? But if the woman have long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering."
HOWEVER, I can prove otherwise.
Our culture leads people to believe that hairstyle is a matter of personal preference, that hairstyle is a matter of fashion and/or convenience, and that how people wear their hair is simply a cosmetic issue. Back in the Vietnam war however, an entirely different picture emerged, one that has been carefully covered up and hidden from public view.
In the early nineties, Sally [name changed to protect privacy] was married to a licensed psychologist who worked at a VA Medical hospital. He worked with combat veterans with PTSD, (post traumatic stress disorder). Most of them had served in Vietnam.
Sally said, "I remember clearly an evening when my husband came back to our apartment on Doctor's Circle carrying a thick official looking folder in his hands. Inside were hundreds of pages of certain studies commissioned by the government. He was in shock from the contents. What he read in those documents completely changed his life. From that moment on my conservative middle of the road husband grew his hair and beard and never cut them again. What is more, the VA Medical center let him do it, and other very conservative men in the staff followed his example."
As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Vietnam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.
With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these Indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.
Serious casualties and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found:
When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistently that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer 'sense' the enemy, they could no longer access a 'sixth sense', their 'intuition' no longer was reliable, they couldn't 'read' subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.
So the testing institute recruited more Indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.
Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.
Here is a Typical Test:
The recruit is sleeping out in the woods. An armed 'enemy' approaches the sleeping man. The long haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any sounds from the approaching enemy are audible. In another version of this test the long haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will perform a physical attack. He follows his 'sixth sense' and stays still, pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and 'kills' him as the attacker reaches down to strangle him. This same man, after having passed these and other tests, then received a military haircut and consistently failed these tests, and many other tests that he had previously passed.
So the document recommended that all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts. In fact, it required that trackers keep their hair long.
Why is this??
The Mormons believe that the native American Indians are descendants of Jews. A quote from the introduction:
"It is a record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the everlasting gospel. . . The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in B.C., and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues at the Tower of Babel. This group is known as the Jaredites. After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians."
With this in mind, allow me to take you back even farther, back into the Old Testament.
May I remind everyone of the Vow of the Nazirite?
The Nazirite/Nazarite vow is taken by individuals who have voluntarily dedicated themselves to God. The vow is a decision, action, and desire on the part of people whose desire is to yield themselves to God completely. By definition, the Hebrew word nazir, simply means “to be separated or consecrated.” The man or woman who took the Nazirite vow took an oath to separate himself or herself from the world and even from close kinship affiliation to serve only Yahweh The Bible says, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the LORD as a Nazirite ’” (Numbers 6:2). This shows that it is individuals who take the initiative to consecrate themselves to the Lord. There is no divine command involved. Numbers continues with verse 5: "While he is under the Nazirite Vow, no razor shall touch his head. Until the period of his dedication to the Lord is over, he shall be sacred and Holy, and shall let the locks of his hair grow freely."
There are other stipulations too. The Nazirite was forbidden to eat or drink anything from the grape vine; this was a form of self-denial connected with the idea of a special consecration to God. One under the vow should abstain from drinking wine and fermented liquor, including vinegar derived from either wine or any fermented liquor, and will abstain from eating grapes fresh or dried or eat anything that comes from the vine. However, According to traditional Rabbinic interpretation, there is no prohibition for the nazirite to drink alcoholic beverages not derived from grapes. And to me, the strangest one: For the entire period of the vow, he must not come in contact with a corpse. He is to remain ritually clean and cannot defile his ritual cleanliness even in the event a parent or sibling dies.
In terms of separation from one's family in service to Yahweh, the term nazir is used of Joseph son of Jacob/Israel in Genesis 49:26 and in Deuteronomy 33:16, and therefore the special service of a Nazirite may predate the Sinai Covenant:
"...blessings of the grain and flowers, blessings of the eternal mountains, bounty of the everlasting hills, may they descend on Joseph's head, on the crown of the one dedicated (or consecrated nazir) from among his brothers!" (Genesis 49:26)
"May the hair grow thick on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the consecrated (nazir) one among his brothers!" (Deuteronomy 33:16)
If the call of the Nazirite existed before the Exodus event, it is defined, regulated, and expanded as part of the Law of the Sinai Covenant, allowing one who is not a hereditary member of the ministerial priesthood through the line of Aaron to offer special service to Yahweh. The vow of a Nazirite could be a special service performed for a certain length of time or the vow could tie the Nazirite to a lifetime of service.
Not cutting the hair, the "crown", of one's head becomes a visible sign of the Nazirite's sworn oath and consecration to Yahweh who is his or her strength. The hair uncut showed an unrestrained comment to ones vow, only allowing divine power to act in him and confidence in God's promise of strength to fulfill it. Samson's long hair was his God ordained strength as found in Judges 13:5 "For lo, thou shalt conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come on his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." In the case of Samson, his strength came from his Nazirite’s vow of consecration and separation to God. Judges 16:17 "So he took her completely into his confidence and told her, 'No razor has touched my head, for I have been consecrated to God from my mothers womb. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I shall be as week as any other man." - so when Delilah cut his hair (the most public, visible example of the vow), his strength was lost.
According to the book 1 Samuel, even Hannah, whom of which was unable to have children, prayed to God asking for a child, and made a Nazarite vow.
"and she made a vow, promising: Oh Lord of hosts if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the Lord for as long as he lives; neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head."(1 Samuel 1:11)
She ended up conceiving a baby boy, to whose name the book is actually named after, Samuel.
Although the Nazirite vow is an Old Testament concept, there is a New Testament parallel to the Nazirite vow.
In the beginning of Luke, we find Zechariah and Elizabeth. An older couple unable to have children, or had previously thought. These two were the parents of the one named John. He was later to be known as John the Baptist. Luke the Evangelist clearly was aware that wine was forbidden in this practice, for the angel (Luke 1:13–15) that announces the birth of John the Baptist foretells that "he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb", in other words, a nazirite from birth, the implication being that John had been given a lifelong nazirite vow.
And in Acts 18:18, Paul cut off his hair because of a vow he had taken, we learn that the early Jewish Christians occasionally took the temporary Nazarite vow, and it is probable that the vow of St. Paul mentioned in Acts 18:18, was of a similar nature, although the shaving of his head in Cenchræ, outside of Palestine, was not in conformity with the rules laid down in the sixth chapter of Numbers, nor with the interpretation of them by the Rabbinical schools of that period.
In Acts 21:18-26, James the first Christian Bishop of Jerusalem requested that St. Paul, as a sign of good faith and solidarity with his Jewish brethren, sponsor 4 Nazirites who had completed their vow period: "So the next day Paul took the men along and was purified with them, and he visited the Temple to give notice of the time when the period of purification would e over and the offering would have to be presented on behalf of each of them." This stratagem only delayed the inevitable mob assault on him. This event brought about the accusation in Acts 24:5–18 that Paul was the "ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes", and thus provides further verification that the term Nazarene was a mistranslation of the term Nazirite.
Paul in obedience to James submitted to a Old Covenant ritual which no longer had any real meaning in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ for every Christian had now been consecrated to accepting a lifetime vow of service in the royal priesthood of believers who received the sacrament of baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. The Latin word sacramentum is translated as "oath". In the Sacraments we swear our oath of consecrated service to the Most Holy Trinity and claim that one perfect sacrifice that is ours for all time and eternity.
In the Book of Hebrews, St. Paul writes:
"He says first You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the cereal offerings, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to do your will. He is abolishing the first sort to establish the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once and for all." (Hebrews 10:8-10)
Might I now take you back a bit to Jesus. The question that everyone wants to know:
Did Jesus have long hair?
In the order of the Nazirite, there is not only the concept of separation and consecration of an individual to God, but also the concept of ministerial service, and perhaps a link to the royal priesthood as found in the High Priest's vow of service. The Hebrew nazir , which also means "consecrated", is inscribed:
1.) On the holy crown worn on the mitre of the High Priest [Exodus 29:6; 39:30; Leviticus 8:9]; Throughout the scriptures much is made of the fact that Jesus Christ was born into the tribe of Judah, the house of David. But there is another side of the linage of Christ that is just as important as His Davidic ancestry. In Jeremiah 33:17-21 the eternal promise is made, “For thus saith YAHWAH; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. And the word of YAHWAH came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith YAHWAH; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.” Since the covenant with day and night have not been broken, then neither is the covenant with David and the Levites broken, and it is in Jesus Christ that both covenants are fulfilled – King and Priest. It is known from the genealogies in Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38 that Jesus was of the linage of David. If anyone is in doubt of this then Revelation 22:16 will have the final say. “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” According to Matthew's genealogy there were three Davidic Kings who had Levite mothers.
They are as follows:
(1) Abijah whose mother was Michaiah the daughter of the Levite Uriel - 2 Chronicles 13:1-2,
(2) Jatham whose mother was Jerushah the daughter of the Levite Zadok - 2 Chronicles 27:1, and
(3) Hezekiah whose mother was Abijah the daughter of the Levite Zechariah - 2 Chronicles 29:1.
It was as a Levitical priest that Jesus performed 2,000 years ago, and that was why He went to Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judah to make the priestly sacrifice. All this was foretold over a 1,000 years before in Psalm 114:2. “Judah was his sanctuary (Temple), and Israel his dominion (Kingdom).” Everyone wanted Jesus to be the Davidic King, and set up the nation of Israel to rule over the whole world. They did not know He was a Levitical Priest to offer up a blood sacrifice for sin. Israel wanted something different than what they got, just as Israel today wants something different than what it will get.
Where does the Bible give the proof that Jesus was a descendant of the PRIEST line of Aaron?
Luke 1:5 gives the names of John the baptist’s parents. “There was, in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.” This woman who was of the linage of Aaron was also the cousin of Mary the mother of Jesus. Luke 1:35-36 “And the angel answered and said unto her (Mary), The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with ' her, who was called barren.” Mary even went and lived with Elisabeth for 3 months, and returned home just before the birth of John the second cousin of Jesus.
2.) On the "crown" of the holy anointing oil used to sanctify people and objects to Yahweh [Leviticus 21:12]; At the time of Jesus' birth, gold, frankincense and myrrh were traditional gifts given to royalty in the Middle East, says Fred Horton, John T. Albritton Professor of the Bible at Wake Forest. Though they were presented to a baby born in a Bethlehem stable instead of one born in a royal palace, the presents signified loyalty and reverence for a king. Gold, frankincense and myrrh were very highly valued in Middle Eastern culture at that time. Most Palestinian Jews of the first century would have been unable to afford such gifts. Gold, which is frequently mentioned as a gift for kings in the Hebrew Bible, was as precious in the first century as it is today. Frankincense and myrrh, fragrant gum resins extracted from trees in South Arabia and Ethiopia, were used to make fine perfumes and anointing oils during the era of Jesus' birth in the Middle East. Oils were used extensively in the Middle East to restore moisture after bathing and to protect skin from the dangerous rays of the Middle Eastern sun. May I remind you what you know him as: Jesus Christ. Improperly translated as it would really read as Jesus the Christ. Christ in ancient Greek is Christós, meaning "anointed" and was used originally as a title, yet later became part of the name "Jesus Christ". This itself is still inaccurate as his real name in proper translation from his Hebrew name is Yeshua.
3.) And later in the days of the monarchy the term is applied to the royal crown of the Kings of Israel [see 2 Samuel 1:10; 2 Kings 11:12; Zechariah 9:16]; After Jesus’ sham trials and subsequent flogging, and before He was crucified, the Roman soldiers “twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said” (Matthew 27:29; see also John 19:2-5). While a crown of thorns would be exceedingly painful, the crown of thorns was more about mockery than it was about pain. Here was the “King of the Jews” being beaten, spit upon, and insulted by presumably low-level Roman soldiers. The crown of thorns was the finalizing of their mockery, taking a symbol of royalty/majesty, a crown, and turning it into something painful and degrading. In this sense all New Covenant believers serve God as perpetual Nazirites who are not defiled by death for our Savior has conquered death. In our vow of holiness we offer our lives as a living sacrifice in service to Christ. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul states, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” For Christians, the ancient Nazirite vow symbolizes the need to be separate from this world, a holy people consecrated to God
At the end of the nazirite period the nazirite brings three sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem. The practice of a nazirite vow is part of the ambiguity of the Greek term "Nazarene" that appears in the New Testament; the sacrifice of a lamb and the offering of bread does suggest a relationship with Christian symbolism (then again, these are the two most frequent offerings prescribed in Leviticus, so no definitive conclusions can be drawn). Traditionally, one may say, 'Jesus was not a Nazarite, he was a Nazarene', but it's obvious that with issues of translation, it can be misconstrued otherwise. Thus making Jesus NOT a Nazarene, but a Nazarite, consecrated from birth.
The requirements of the Nazirite are in fact similar to those of the Levitical priesthood. A priest had to abstain from wine during his period of service in the Sanctuary and he was to avoid all defilement from coming in contact with the dead except in the case of his nearest relatives. The difference is that the Nazirite's vow imposed a more sever obligation in that the Nazirite had to abstain from wine and all products of the vine for the entire length of his oath; like a High Priest he could not even bury his parents [Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:7]; and he could not cut his hair for the length of the vow. The two major things that seem to trick people about Jesus' being a Nazarite are drinking of wine and being around dead bodies. These two things are easily explained if one actually reads the Bible on a regular basis.
Dead bodies - even those of a close relative - were not to be approached during the vow of a Nazirite. Separation from death - the effect of sin - was essential during the period of the vow. Where in the Bible did Jesus EVER come in contact with a dead body that he did not raise from the dead? Doing so would not break the vow, but the laws of physics!! As for drinking of wine, nothing has really been documented of this for the exception of the last supper, not more than 24 hours before he was crucified, which means he was at the end of his original vow bestowed upon him from birth!
In searching for solutions for the distress in our world, it may be time for us to consider that many of our most basic assumptions about reality are in error. It may be that a major part of the solution is looking at us in the face each morning when we see ourselves in the mirror. The story of Sampson and Delilah in the Bible has a lot of encoded truth to tell us. When Delilah cut Sampson's hair, the once undefeatable Sampson was defeated.
